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Cal Football

Bears Beat out Top National Comp For Wilkins' Commitment

August 8, 2020
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6-4/250 Santa Margarita Catholic DE Derek Wilkins has been high on the Bears' list of targets from the onset. Today they secured his commitment with his commitment announced via Instagram.

“First off, I’d like to thank God for all the amazing blessings he’s provided me throughout my life. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

“I’d like to thank my mom and dad for helping me be the man I am today. I love you guys. To the best team I’ve ever had, thank you for sticking with me through all the highs and lows...Thanks to all the coaches who have helped develop me as a player. 

Bear Insider

“Last, I’d like to thank every coach who recruited me throughout he recruiting process. It’s means a lot. 

“With all that being said, I’d like to say that I’ll be continuing my academic and athletic career at The University of California. Go Bears, baby!”

Rated 4 stars (90) by 247 and high 3 stars (5.7) by Rivals, Wilkins has long been tied to prior commits Akili Calhoun‍  and friend Mavin Anderson‍ as well as TE Jermaine Terry‍. Wilkins will team with Calhoun and recent DL commit Myles Williams‍ for what’s looking like a devastating future D-Line for the Bears.

As a junior, Wilkins had 54 tackles, seven sacks, four forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and three blocked kicks for Santa Margarita Catholic. 

The Bears beat out Stanford, UCLA, USC, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, Nebraska and more for Wilkins’ commitment. The commitment over Stanford, who Wilkins had already been admitted to, was the Bears second big head to head victory over the Cardinal after securing 4 star WR J Michael Sturdivant‍ earlier this summer.

WIlkins becomes the 17th commitment in Cal’s 2021 class, currently ranked number 20 in 247 2021 class rankings.

Other stories:

Local De La Salle DB Lu Hearns Commits to Cal

Bears Stay Hot in July, Adding Bishop Alemany DE Myles Williams

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Bears Beat out Top National Comp For Wilkins' Commitment

20,556 Views | 49 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Bearly Clad
LACalFan
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In reply to MilleniaBear • 9:43a, 8/9/20
MilleniaBear said:
I love seeing 'furd ranked 91st in team recruit rankings.
Furd is a program in decline.

Cal is on the rise.

The future is bright.
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sp4149
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9:59a, 8/9/20
The Bear Insider tweet :

Bear Insider @BearInsider

Golden Bears land hometown recruit Derek Wilkins to add to the 2021 recruiting class! The 4-star defensive end picks Cal over UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, and Michigan!


Should be embarrassing as either the BI staff has no idea what hometown means, or they really think that Orange County is really close to Berkeley.
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LACalFan
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In reply to sp4149 • 10:09a, 8/9/20
Home is where the heart is?
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71Bear
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In reply to heartofthebear • 10:35a, 8/9/20
heartofthebear said:
71Bear said:
heartofthebear said:
71Bear said:
One correction: Rivals does not list Cal in the Top 25. They currently have the Bears ranked #32 (including the Wilkins commitment).

Based on the above article, I would say that Cal has some influencers in this recruiting class. What do you think?
No. The Bears do not have commitments from any of the Top 150 players in the country.

Quite frankly, a true "influencer" is a rare commodity. Cal would be fortunate to sign one or two a year max. Off the top of my head, I can think of only a handful who were signed by Cal in the last 30 years.

Note: I'm not talking about guys who are just highly ranked. I am talking about guys who are highly ranked and have the ability to turn a program around or drive it to the next level with their play and how they are perceived by their colleagues in the football community.
That is such a vague definition that it is almost impossible to target them. How do you know beforehand who they are? Who are they for 2021 and 2022? Do you know? How many of those 150 ever have the academics to get into Cal? Of those few, how many would rather be coached by a Cal coach than be coached by the best in the country--Guys like Saban, Sweeney etc?

These type of guys know they have what it takes to get to the NFL and make a financial killing. Why do they need a Cal education? You can make enough to last 40 years in just 3 NFL years if you are a top draft pick and you know how to manage money.
I summarized my thoughts on my response on the Recruiting Observations thread. I would just add that as my definition is big personality, major talent and production in the field. You know who they are - the tough part is giving them a reason to enroll at Cal. Some guys want to be trailblazers at mid-level programs and others want to follow the pack at the premier programs. Target the trailblazers....

Of the Top 25-50, how many fit my definition? Very few, but you only need 1 or 2 a year plus a solid "rest of the class" (like this years) to contend consistently. And, of course, once you start winning, it becomes contagious and much easier to attract top talent (see Stanford).
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chazzed
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2:17p, 8/9/20
Welcome to Cal and good luck in Berkeley, young man!

Our recruiters are selling the University of California correctly, it seems.
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Bearly Clad
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In reply to sp4149 • 2:59p, 8/9/20
We're the University of California. Anyone from the state of California is a hometown hero with us
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BearGreg
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In reply to sp4149 • 3:39p, 8/9/20
Staff
sp4149 said:
The Bear Insider tweet :

Bear Insider @BearInsider

Golden Bears land hometown recruit Derek Wilkins to add to the 2021 recruiting class! The 4-star defensive end picks Cal over UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, and Michigan!


Should be embarrassing as either the BI staff has no idea what hometown means, or they really think that Orange County is really close to Berkeley.
Did you read Wilkins tweet? He's coming HOME!
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01Bear
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In reply to Bearly Clad • 9:04a, 8/10/20
Bearly Clad said:
We're the University of California. Anyone from the state of California is a hometown hero with us

This. Absolutely this!

Yeah, I get it, there are a lot of NorCal alumni. But there are also a lot of SoCal alumni, as well. Cal isn't just the the flagship public university for NorCal, it's the flagship university for all of California.

You Bay Area-centric alumni (looking at you sp4149) need to stop ceding SoCal and SoCal recruits to UCLA and USC.
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71Bear
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In reply to Bearly Clad • 9:41a, 8/10/20
Bearly Clad said:
We're the University of California. Anyone from the state of California is a hometown hero with us
Home state - yes; home town - no.
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Bearly Clad
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In reply to 71Bear • 2:45p, 8/10/20
At that point you're just unnecessarily narrowing down the parameters though. Lebron was referred to as a 'hometown hero' even though he was from Akron and not Cleveland because that's the spirit of the term and how it's commonly used. You wouldn't really make the argument that someone from Hayward, Pittsburgh, Walnut Creek, Milpitas, or San Jose isn't a 'hometown hero' for the Bears just because they're not from Berkeley would you?

Why not just take the semantics to it's limit and say that Jermaine Terry isn't a hometown hero because Richmond isn't Berkeley and is technically a city and not a town? I guess it really sucks for anyone from San Lorenzo, since it's unincorporated territory and so they have no hometown
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71Bear
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In reply to Bearly Clad • 2:47p, 8/10/20
Bearly Clad said:
At that point you're just unnecessarily narrowing down the parameters though. Lebron was referred to as a 'hometown hero' even though he was from Akron and not Cleveland because that's the spirit of the term and how it's commonly used. You wouldn't really make the argument that someone from Hayward, Pittsburgh, Walnut Creek, Milpitas, or San Jose isn't a 'hometown hero' for the Bears just because they're not from Berkeley would you?

At that point why not just take the semantics to it's limit and say that Jermaine Terry isn't a hometown hero because Richmond isn't Berkeley and is technically a city and not a town. I guess it really sucks for anyone from San Lorenzo, since it's unincorporated territory and so they have no hometown
My rule of thumb...

If you live in one of the Bay Area's nine counties, you are hometown. Otherwise you are from Northern or Southern California

There you go, now you know....
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Nasal Mucus Goldenbear
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2:58p, 8/10/20


ACKCHYUALLY
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FloriDreaming
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12:24p, 8/12/20
Awesome get!

I love the direction of Cal's recruiting. 2020 was big, solid, deep. 2021 is deep and a level up in talent.

The actual ranking number is less important than the momentum. I said after the 2020 class that four years of that level of recruiting and Cal would be competitive at the high level. 2021 looks to exceed that class. If the Bears continue to recruit at this level, in a couple years they'll have the talent and depth to make a serious run at conference championship.

Obviously first things first, we need to get back to actually playing football. But in the meantime it's great to see a coaching staff that's really good on the recruiting end, it's been a long time since Cal had that.
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Bearly Clad
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In reply to FloriDreaming • 2:41p, 8/12/20
I agree with you on most of it, but I think we were serious conference championship contenders this Fall and will be in the Spring or next Fall as long as our roster and coaching staff is intact.

A few years back Colorado rode a veteran roster to win the P-12 South and earn a top 10 ranking towards the end of the year (they didn't end up finishing in the top 10 but they made the P12CG and the Alamo Bowl on a 10-4 season). They went from 4-9 and 1-8 in the P12 in '15 to 10-4 and 8-1 in the P12 in '16 and spent weeks 11-14 (the last 4 rankings of the season except for the final AP poll) ranked in the AP top 15.

That's the value of an upperclassmen team and we have more talent and better coaching than that Colorado roster. This year we've got a heavily veteran roster and a much better QB running the show then Montez was for the Buffs. Plus we were almost unanimously being picked top 4 in the Pac-12 by the experts and I think the top 2 teams in each division are usually solid conference contenders

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